Electric fence?

[lizafava]

Hi all, I am new here, but have had periods of lurking whenever an issue came up with my little flocks

Anyway, we have 5 hens in our tiny urban backyard. The fences here are all 3 feet chain link. When I had chickens in another city, we had a 6ft privacy fence so we had no stray chicken issues at all.

Anyway, the hopping the fence has pretty much been minimal until recently. Now its just terrible, and out neighbors are upset. We are keeping the hens in the coop for now, which I hate because then we have to mow and the chickens are sad. We keep their wings clipped, but obviously 3 feet is not high enough.

We can't afford new fences right now, so I am curious if anyone has any experience with electric fences. It seems like 90% of the time the chickens jump up onto the fence before they jump over and if we strung an electrified wire over the top of the fence they wouldn't jump. does this sound like it would work? Also, would I be able to use a low enough voltage so that my 2yo wouldn't be too shocked it he touched it? My only electric fence experience was with horses, and that was quite a current!

Thank you so much!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

You're worried about them being sad so you want to zap them?

Stringing a wire across the top won't work. They will hop up on the wire and not get shocked. Have you ever seen wild birds on a high voltage line? It doesn't bother them. For electric fences to work the animal has to be standing on the ground or touching a grounded fence wire while touching the energized wire to get shocked. The voltage has to be pretty high for the birds to get a jolt and learn from it. Anything that will shock the birds will also shock your daughter.

 

[Dawn419]

I personally don't think electric wire is the answer to your problem. You need to close in the top of the chickens fenced in area.

On another note...chain link fence won't protect your birds from outside predators but you could cover it with 1/2 inch hardware cloth to help with that.

Sorry if these aren't the answers you were hoping or looking for, just trying to help from what I've learned here.

Dawn

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
She's talking about a backyard perimeter fence though. She does the same as I do and just lets them run the backyard. My 6' privacy fence keeps them in the yard. The only thing I can suggest is to build them a large pen.

 

[rufus]

An electric fence in an urban enviornment is not a good idea. I feel for the guy that has to read your utility meters.

Rufus

 

[lizafava]

Duh, of course they have to be grounded. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

We live in a big city and predators are not a problem during the day. Well, maybe human kind (thats why we lock our coop!)

I guess we'll just figure something out, and maybe use a chicken tractor for a while. I can't make them a pen - we need all the backyard space we have for our child.

 

[lizafava]

Quote:
Thats totally helpful, thanks.